Finnas

Selon le Dictionnaire Anglo-Saxon :

Finnas

gen. a; pl. m. I. the Finns generally, including Scride-finnas and Ter-finnas, are the inhabitants of the north and west coast from Halgoland [q. v.] fór; ac him wæs ealne weg wéste land on ðæt steór-bord, bútan fisceran, and fugeleran, and huntan, and ðæt wǽron ealle Finnas Ohthere had not met with any inhabited land, since he came from his own home [Halgoland]; but the land was uninhabited all the way on his right, save by fishermen, fowlers and hunters, and they were all Finns, Ors. 1, 1; Bos. 20, 3-6. Ða Finnas and ða Beormas sprǽcon neáh án geþeóde the Finns and the Biarmians spoke nearly the same language, 1, 1: Bos. 20, 14: 19, 29. II. Finwood, between Gothland and Smöland, in the south of Sweden :-- Ða Beówulf sǽ óþbær, flód æfter faroþe, on Finna land then the sea bore Beowulf away, the flood along the shore, on the Fins' land, Beo. Th. 1165; B. 580. Not Finland, but the Fins' land; for how could Beowulf, in his swimming-match with Breca, be borne by the sea to Finland? Thorpe thinks the following extract may, however, afford a solution of the difficulty, -- 'Their [the Fins'] name is probably still to be found in the district of Finved [Finwood], between Gothland and Smöland. This inconsiderable and now despised race has, therefore, anciently been far more widely spread, and reached along the Kullen [the chain of mountains separating Norway from Sweden] down to the Sound, and eastward over the present Finland,' Petersen, Danmarks Historie i Hedenold i. p. 36. Ic wæs mid Finnum I was with the Fins, Scóp. Th. 153; Wld. 76. DER. Scride-finnas, Ter-. finnas

Mots connexes: map in Ors. Bos.] to the White Sea, as defined by Ohthere in the following example :-- Ne métte Ohthere nán gebún land, syððan he fram his ágnum háme [Hálgoland,